1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of eliminating stratum corneum from the skin by applying and then removing an adhesive tape to and from the skin surface as a pretreatment for non-invasive measurement of biomedical substances in blood.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, measurements of biomedical substances in blood are carried out by analyzing blood samples taken out from human bodies by clinical examination procedures or by biochemical automatic analyzers. Recently, however, a new measurement method using a suction effusion fluid in place of blood was reported, in "Proceeding of the first Pan Pacific Symposium, Vancouver, Canada" July 23-27, 1986, pp 57-58 and "Proceeding of the Symposium on Chemical Sensors", PV 87-9, pp 327-333.
The suction offusion fluid is a small amount of fluid obtainable by subjecting stratum-corneum-climinated skin to suction by weak evacuation and is thought of as an interstitial fluid in subcutaneous tissues or a vacuum filtrate from capillary walls. Such suction effusion fluid has merits that it has a protein concentration lower than blood and so fouling by protein of sensor surface can be reduced. Further, the suction effusion fluid is collected transcutaneously without using injectors and so psychological pain to man for test is reduced and there is also an advantage from the viewpoint of prevention of infection.
In order to collect the suction effusion fluids, however, it was required to subject the skin surface to a pretreatment of eliminating stratum corneum therefrom for facilitating extraction of the effusion fluid toward the skin surface. Heretofore, the elimination of stratum corneum was carried out by a stripping treatment which comprised application and removal of a strong adhesive tape to and from the skin of man for test repeatedly.
In such elimination method, however, there were some problems owing to the fact that it completely relied upon manual operations and so it was difficult to determine the optimum level of elimination. Any insufficient elimination would give too small amount of effusion fluid to carry out measurements and any excess elimination would cause bleeding from capillary and give pain to man for test. In short, in order to determine optimum level of elimination, very careful and long time pretreatment by an expert was required.